Petals on the Sunny Beach
by JuMoFi of the March Hare
Summary: In the small town of Iwatobi, fate brings five girls to the swim club and its members. The dandere, the American fresh meat, the tsundere, the explorer, and the princess. How will their year turn out? Ella Takemono wants nothing more than a popular high school life while adjusting to her new home. But what's the risk of popularity over friends? And why is she drawn to Nagisa?
1. Ella Takemono

_(J.I.C.) Disclaimer: I don't own Free! or its characters. I only own my OCs. _

_A/N: __***11/13/16 update.** Because I am working on SWaS, another fic of Free!, I am going to let this story go on hiatus for a bit. Please also note that the story will be thoroughly plotted, edited, and trimmed when I come back to this story, so anything you read from here on to the latest chapter may not be the same. If you want to get any updates please click on my profile link for the latest news on my you for your patience and I'll be seeing you soon! :D_

Chapter One:

_"Takemono-san, you're so cool!" a faceless figure tells me as I walk across the school sidewalk. _

_It's a sunny day and I approach the school building with an elegant stride in my step. My 'seifuku' skirt swishes at my sides with every move I make, my long, sunny ponytail bouncing with as much eagerness. I wear a wide smile on my lips to greet my classmates and the upperclassmen who stop and stare at the marvelous glamour of my slim figure. _

_"Ella-chan, we love you!" calls out a group of fanboys. I pass by them, stopping for a second to blow a little kiss from my palm, and sent every one of them down like pins in a bowling alley. _

_Every one of my fellow classmates are yearning to be noticed by me. As a beautiful, popular schoolgirl I try to greet each of them with a wave of my hand or a cheery wink of the eye so that they pay close attention to me. They worship me because I'm friendly and number one at everything in my class. The girls want to be me and the boys compete to ask me out. The spotlights all on me-_

BAM!

I jump out of my skin as I hear someone sneaking into my room, slamming the door into my dresser that I pushed in front of the knob to keep out "the trespassers", a.k.a. my younger brothers. I dare myself to fall back asleep, but then the two somehow make it inside the room and hop onto my bed on both my sides.

"Onee-san! ONEE-SAN! GET UP!" my two little brothers screamed in my ears.

When I say I like my sleep that means that I don't want to be woken up as if the tsunami sirens were going off in our area. And since today was my first day at high school I did not want anyone to scream my name at six in the morning. Apparently no one respects me...

I sat up with my eyes all crusty and half-opened. It was five-fifty-seven, three minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off. I could make out behind the idiots that they kicked my pearly white, squatty dresser to the opposite corner of the room. From there it took out my little jewelry box with, the little box spilled open with its contents thrown up all over the carpet. Thank God the carpet was biege in this case so I could see where everything fell. Next time I'd have to try put a lock on my door...

"Hey-hey, onee-san! Look at us! We have uniforms!" they exclaimed.

Daniel, one of the dark brown, scruffy haired dweebs was hanging onto me like I was a tree. His twin, Tachi, sat next to me yanking my sleeve. I grumbled under my breath, "So help me God...".

"Onee-SAN!"

Daniel poked my eye and giggled to himself. Tachi was about to do the same when I grabbed both of their coat collars and pulled them out of my bed. I dragged them out into the hall then to Mom and Dad's room, kicked their door open and shouted," Mom! Dad! The stork came and finally shipped in your love children!"

The two ran up and jumped onto their bed repeating, "Love children! Ha-ha! We're your love children!"

"Nighty-night!" I sang as I shut the door.

Once I was back in bed I shut my eyes and relaxed. I tried to make myself comfortable what with little time I had left to sleep, so I layed back, trying to think of how fluffy my orange comforter was, how similar to a cloud it...was...

Then my alarm startles me.

"Da-mnit!"

I pounded it as hard as I could then swung my legs over the mattress. In my stand up mirror adjacent to my bed I caught my reflection of my face. I looked like hell. I felt like it, albeit my struggle to stay sane with monsters for brothers. It was because of those brats that I was cranky and disgusting looking. Ugh...

The first thing of my morning ritual was to run to the bathroom and splash some water on my face. A little eyeliner and some blush and I was fresh and clean again, what with my hip to the door to keep the twits out as they pounded on it rigorously. I'd have jumped out the window if they barged in because, unfortunately, that door didn't have a lock, and they almost made me slash a line of black makeup stretching down from my eye to my lips.

While the twins were distracted I snuck back to my room next door and pulled my seifuku (uniform) out from one of the dresser drawers and changed clothes. I looked so mature and older for a first year in my appropriate garb. It took a while to convince Mum and Dad that I needed to wear a short skirt, 'cuz that's what everyone else is wearing and I'd look weird with the long one on, but it was worth the argument. Though, I had to promise to keep a second jacket with me in case "something happened". That part I really hated. It'd be awkward enough to be caught wearing two jackets at once...I promised myself that I'd hide the other in my school bag.

When I was about to leave my room, Daniel and Tachi came from behind me and shouted, "Onee-san looks pretty! But her skirt's short!"

I never heard them come in. I had to remind myself to keep a close watch on the door later on.

Tachi took one look at me with his beady little eyes. I knew that wasn't a good look. He'd always do that when he had a trick up his sleeve. And that particular scheme of his afterward wasn't the worst he had done before.

"I can see your panties, Sis!" Tachi said after hunching over and looked under my skirt.

"Ha-ha! We can see your panties!"

Daniel grabbed my underwear from underneath my skirt and pulled. I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Mum! MUM!"

Mum came in just as they were heading for the door, green face mask still stuck to her face and fuzzy, yellow robe tied at her waist.

"Mum, get them out of my room!"

"Okay, you two! Daddy's downstairs with breakfast! Go ask him for some."

"O-kay!"

I crossed my arms and replied, "Really? You won't do anything besides let them off the hook?"

"What else can I do, sweety? They're kids. They don't know any better."

I pouted my lip at her.

"Hey, grumble all you want, but that's all I'm doing.

"Now, about you..."

She stepped behind me to look into the mirror at my reflection. I kept my arms crossed while Mom brushed off some lint on my shoulders then went on to pulling my sunny blond hair into a ponytail. Mum was the one who talked me into growing my hair out, but it wasn't because I looked nice with hip-long hair. It was for her to play with when she wasn't doting on my brothers. Maybe it was also because she was so fixated on the color. She and Dad had two different types of muddy-colored hair, which the boys take after, but my genetics must've been mutated or something. Some time or later I'd want to think about trimming it. It is 'my' hair after all...

In the mirror I could see her flinch when she reached the bottom. Around a year ago I let a friend color it with dark brown dye at a sleepover. Somewhat sloppily done, but it was "well" received by my parents. I ended up getting grounded from a month, but it was worth it. I liked the transition of shading, and I liked being my own person in a God-awful bland family.

"There's my baby girl," Mum said after recovering from that fading memory.

"Mo-om..!"

"Oh, whatever.."

She grabbed my bag and shoved me out of the room. Mum knew I didn't like that but she did it anyway. _What the hell was up with her today?, _was what I asked myself before catching whiff of the scent of bacon in the stairway.

"Dar-ling!" Mom called out to Dad.

"Ye-es?"

"Is everything okay in there?"

We women stopped at the entryway of the kitchen. Dad was whipping up everything he could get his hands on in the fridge as my brothers pounded their forks and knives on the family table. I swear, Dad always did that when Mum's excited in the morning. Couldn't they have toned down the "Happy Couple" thing for just a minute? Dad was going mental with cooking as his eyes were on Mum.

"There's my two favorite girls!" he said.

"Need any help, dear?"

"Nope. I've got everything covered here!"

I rolled my eyes when Mum walked up and kissed Dad. You'd expect parents to be less affectionate in front of their kids but these two were a special case, especially when it came to talking about the first time they met. All their friends and neighbors heard tons of times before that they "met one morning in London heading in the opposite directions. They happened to bump shoulders, and then caught glances, like it was love at first sight. After that they dated for a year and finally married the following spring." No matter how many times I heard that story I couldn't get over the urge to gag. Love stories never interested me...

"Oh, before you go, sweetie, " Mum suddenly addressed me, "I need you to take your brothers to school."

I stood up with my empty plate and walked to the sink. Mom just kept calling out my name, but I didn't want to answer. There was no way I'd take them to school in a town I barely knew how to get around.

"Okay, Ella? You'll take your brothers to school, right?"

I put on a fake grin and replied, "Y-yeah, Mum..."

_No-freaking-way! You've got to be joking! I had to walk my brothers to school on the first day?! 'Ya-da!'_

* * *

"Sis! Onee-san!"

My brothers pulled on my sleeves calling out my name since we turned the block. People passing by turned their heads as we walked, either glaring or whispering to each other. I would've settled for running right into the street to be pulverized by a car if I didn't have Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dweeb holding me down! The only thing worse than this would be someone from the high school seeing me and telling everyone all about the "girl with two loud brothers on the street". What would that say about me? Nothing good! I'd be a loser, an outcast, a nobody! And I'm innocent for God's sake!

"Onee-san! Where're we goin'?"

"Where's the school?"

"Enough! We'll get there when we get there!"

The last thing I expected was sabotage from these two. Both of them let go of my arms to ball up their fists and wipe away tears streaming down their cheeks.

"On-eeee-san..you don't have to yell..at us..."

"Yeah..we'll behave better.."

I heard a lady on my right hiss under her breath, "Rotten teenager! You shouldn't yell at your siblings for no reason!"

"Aww, why're you two crying? Are you two scared for your first day at school?" I said in a fake, sweet voice. I wouldn't let them get the best of me or be chastised by on-goers.

I patted their heads and waited for the right opportunity. When no one was looking I snatched them and darted to the right. A few turns later I came across their school entrance, and so I dropped them off their as I caught my breath. Daniel and Tachi began walking away when I exclaimed, "Oh, no...you d-hont!"

They turned around, both grinning from cheek to cheek. Daniel then piped up, "Thanks for walkin' us, Onee-san! Did you like our performance?"

"Never..do..that..again!"

"Hehehe. Onee-san, you look a little tired."

"Get to class!" I snapped.

Daniel and Tachi skipped away in fits of laughter. _The next time those two do something like that-_

I heard the school bell from the high school start to ring once the dweebs had left. After running all the way to the elementary school, I had to run to the high school in under five minutes?

"Agh! When will this day end?!"

Thank God I made it inside before I was written up. The worst I got was a lecture from some fat guy that turned out to be my homeroom teacher. He's one of the few adults I didn't want to mess with. His breath was putrid and his eyes bore holes into my head as I walked into class.

My classroom wasn't as big as I'd pictured it. It spread out at least a yard or so wide and the desks were rickety as an old boat. Most of these people were the quiet type, but in the back were three girls giggling and sneaking their cell phones under their desks. They seemed cool, better than anyone else completely dull or too geeky. They all wore matching friendship bracelets underneath their cuffs. One had brown hair tied in a side tail, the middle girl tall and lean with crimped hair to frame her face, and the other on the right shook her hair out of its pixie cut.

There was one guy that stood out from the group. He kept on smiling all the time and had a different kind of blond hair than mine, but more peach colored. To sum him up...he creeped me out.

Tubbo the teacher introduced me to the classroom without letting me speak. All I could do was just stand and look pretty for "the audience". Then he just pointed me to a desk near the wall. Was it the uniform that made me look like some pushover? 'Cuz I sure didn't put off that kind of attitude.

When I sat down, the girl next to me pushed her glasses up onto the bridge of her nose. I took a look at her.

_Hey, she doesn't seem too bad. Yeah, she looks pretty smart. I'll tag along her so that Lord Lumps lays off me._

I mean, her hair was long and teal, her bottle cap glasses kept sliding off her nose and she's hardly said anything to me so far. She was a hundred percent nerd, and I knew it. And teacher's like nerds!

Soon after Bubble Butt left I sat back and tried not to doze off taking notes. The sun was bright and the weather was so perfect for going outside, but at my desk I had to sit and watch the teacher write algebra-like stuff on the board. If only schools could teach outside on days like that one.

"Hazuki, will you write the answer on the board?"

" 'Hai!' "

I woke up in the middle of class when I heard someone across from me answer the teacher. I looked around for the time and to the board. When I saw that I'd missed an hour of class I bursted out loud, "Eh?!"

Then all eyes were on me. _Oh, great! There's no way I'm gettin' out of this one!_

"Ms. Takemono, what is the problem?" the teacher asked me.

I stood up to face her as I tried to think of an excuse. I could tell her a bird outside nearly hit the window or someone in the hall-

"Ms. Takemono!"

"I-I thought there was something wrong with the problem..on the board.."

_Would that work? Would she buy it?_

"Oh? Then would you care to put your answer on the board?"

_Nope! No I wouldn't!_

So far I've been able to play off as a care-free newbie, but it was out of control at that point. I'd dug a hole for myself too deep to climb out of. As I walked up to the board, I prepared myself for the humiliation to come.

"Good luck," the kid up there whispered to me.

I snatched the piece of chalk he handed to me. _Is he trying to make fun of me?_

He looked at me with a dumb grin. It was the same guy I thought was creepy, and then even more so with his sweet pink eyes, and an inch shorter than me..Ye-eah, no. No..he's-

_We happened to bump shoulders that day, and our eyes met-_

I turned away from him as the teacher barked at me to "go ahead". It was strange to me that Mum's story suddenly popped into my head especially since this guy was the one who reminded me of it. How-Why was that?

The boy went back to his seat and left me behind. My eyes turned to the board, my palms sweaty and my hand shaking in the process. _If only I'd been awake for the first half of the class, then I'd be able to know how to solve this! _I whined in my head.

Slowly I wrote half the problem while trying to remember the rest. When I stopped, the silence from the class filled my ears like someone were shrieking at the top of their lungs. I couldn't focus-my mind was so blank that I started panicking. My eyes darted to the right. The clock-no, no help there. Could someone give me a simple sign at the very least?!

That's when I saw that girl's, the "nerd"'s, hands forming an x then a y..._Oh!_

I wrote the rest of the equation on the board then turned to the teacher. She nodded at me then said, "Correct..Very good, Ms. Takemono. Just try not to make sudden outbursts, would you?"

_Yes! This was my first step to popularity. But I'll need to do something else perfect to cover up that foul shriek I made before...That was so not cool..._

As I sat back down I heard others whispering about me. Some of the guys could have at least remembered my name, but the girls in the back spoke in serious, hushed voices. Catching their attention meant that I could at least make some friends today. _Ah, it's good to be me..._

When the lunch bell rang everyone left to go get food from the cafe stand. The girl next to me pulled out a small bento that was so decorative with emerald green and fine, golden strokes. I wondered if she were rich or something with the delicately arranged food. Man, was that some expensive looki-

"Is there something that you need, Takemono-san?"

"Huh?"

Then I realized that the girl caught me ogling her bento.

"Uh-u-nothing! Nope..just dozed off is all..."

"Oh, alright.."

She held out her chopsticks and dug into the rice. That reminded me that I had to go buy food outside. I heard that there was a special sandwich with jam or cream from the other classmates around me. Seeing as I was successful in class today, I thought I'd treat myself.

"Um..Takemono-san?"

I turned around.

"I'm glad that you were able to solve the problem...from earlier..."

"O-oh yeah. Um, thanks...for helpin' me," I mumbled.

She gently smiled at me. The way she did that was so proper and so polite I was nearly sure of her being Richie Rich rich. No one here had flamboyant grace and manner like her. All I could do was grin back cheekily and walk out before I became any more intimidated.

As I stepped outside the classroom, someone else called out my name. I thought it was that girl again until I saw the girls from class run up to me.

"Uh, hi," I said.

"Yeah, hi...Listen, did you seriously just talk to the Ice Princess?"

"Who?"

"Ryuko Michiko. The girl you sit next to?"

"What about her?"

"I'm not sure if we should tell you, but she's bad news."

"How?"

"Well, she's rich. And her family owns so many different companies," another said.

"Yeah, and if you make her upset, her grandmother can do something bad.

"Like, this one time, one of our friends accidentally bumped into her, and her grandmother got involved with the school. Next thing we know she was expelled.

"And, this other time, someone accidentally dropped some paint on her and they had to move out the next week because their parents were transferred to a different job."

"Yeah," their leader replied, "so you better not make friends with her or else."

_Great, being in debt to someone twisted and powerful on the first day...talk about 'screwed'..._

"Al-alright, thanks."

The girls walked away with odd smiles on their faces. I don't know if it was just the harbor boat's fumes getting into their heads, but there were a lot of girls in town that acted kinda catty. Gossipy girls like them were always dramatic...but I guess that's how they are near the top of the food chain...

I finally got to the cafe stand and I couldn't believe that it was chocked full with other people. There were so many basketball players blocking the way* that I was shoved to the ground before getting in line. It was so crowded for a small town high school.

Ten minutes had passed before I could crawl my way underneath. It was surprising that no one was paying attention to me and my awesome skills. But when I got up to the front, the special breads were gone.

"Is there no more of this bread?" I asked the lunch lady.

"Sorry, but I sold the last of it to the boy over there."

Of-course..it was Honey Head, the one from class. I could see his blonde, little locks over the top of the new crowd coming in. As quick as I could I grabbed the first sandwich I saw and handed over whatever yen I had. _That guy wasn't gonna get away with this!_

It took awhile before I could spot him again. The other people coming in spat me out after tossing me around in the center of the crowd. I had to push them off of me to make a path, and then it became a clear road for me. The first thing I did was follow after Blondie towards the main building I saw him skip to. Past the baseball field I found him again opening the doors to the school section. So I hurried then saw him at the end of the hallway going up the stairs. The second floor wasn't as busy but I ran down that way to find him. Others stared at me, whispering about why a first year was in their hall. That's when I realized that he wasn't there. If he was, then they would've been talking about him too.

I went back up the stairs and to the top floor. This time I stuck near the staircase. Nope, no blondes here. The only other option was to climb up to the rooftop where only a few people gutsy enough went. Or if they were geeks. It'd make perfect sense if it were him.

Victory was mine when I finally caught him talking with his friend on the roof._ No one was gonna stop me now!_

"Oi! 'Shota'!" I shouted to him.

And there he was, stuffing his cheeks with the bread, looking at me like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Oh, that girl from class!"

"Yeah, that's right! And you're the one who took my sweet bread!" I exclaimed as I stormed over.

"Huh?"

"I wanted one of those breads and you took the last two!"

"Oh...sorry..."

_Seriously? Are you joking? You're sorry?! That's all you can say to me?!_

I was about to call him out when someone behind me asked, "Takemono..Ella?"

"Who's aski-"

I gasped a loud and squealed, "Kasumi! It's so good to finally see a familiar face!"

Oh-my-God was I excited to see her after so long. The last time we'd seen each other was when the family stayed in Iwatobi to visit a friend. Our family friend had a daughter my age with frail, blue hair and bright, sapphire eyes. We only got to play for two-three days around the beach before I had to leave. And now both of us were going to the same school!

"I know, it's been-"

"A couple of years. You've gotten taller..."

It then dawned on me that she never liked anyone talking about her height. I had to keep up my fake smile after insulting her like that, but she would've seen past the irritating remark, _...wouldn't she?_

"Um, you remember Kou-san, right?"

It got so much better when she asked me that. Kou was one of the neighborhood kids I met besides Kasumi, and she looked just the same from before when I looked back to the group Kasumi had been eating with. I called out to my friend, "Kou! Look who's back, baby!"

All of us sat in our circle to catch up. I wished Kasumi didn't waste her time on that guy when she apologized on "my behalf". It was his fault he upset me...but I got over that quickly and joined in the conversation of what our years were like after we last met. By far mine was the most impressive. I was the only one who traveled the farthest (which would be to London, since that's where my Dad had been in business for a while before moving back to Iwatobi) and who could speak a different language (but that wasn't as cool. Lots of people could speak English in Japan, right?). It wasn't until a new face came back with Magenta Eyes' friend and sat down in between Kasumi and me that there was a competitor in my midst. Kasumi called her Samantha. A tall, sun-kissed skinned, beautiful American with golden brown hair that was tied up in a tail like mine, but shorter towards the shoulders and rippled like waves around her jaw, and hazel green eyes that were definitely prettier than my bland brown pair.

"So, are you a newbie, too?" I asked.

"U-uh yeah..am I that popular around here?"she replied shyly.

"Puh-lease. This is just a small town. They're impressed with just about anybody..Like me.."

"Where'd you move from?"

"_Oh, y'know_," I said in English, "_the UK, then some other town away...then here._."

"_No way_!" she replied back.

So I liked to flaunt my English...I thought of it that time as a comfort for Sam. She and I were in the same dingy. Both of us were in a country that we were barely used to and surrounded by people who probably couldn't translate our dialogue that rapidly. Maybe, but really, I dunno. I just found it really soothing that I could stretch my arms out and speak in a tongue that I was much more accommodated to. Plus, I did befriend her. It wasn't all that bad, anyways...

What really surprised me was that both Kasumi and Samantha were a year ahead of me. With Kasumi's height it made her look younger, but Samantha could have come from junior high and still look like a mature adult to me. Color me baffled but I found it very helpful to know that I had help from my senpais, and that it made it doubly excellent for my classmates to see that I was popular with the upperclassmen.

After lunch I had to go back to my class, running into Hazuki on the way in. God, was he annoying. He kept talking about the special sandwich he ate and if I liked it too, almost like he were taunting me in some kind of way. I thought I wouldn't be able to get rid of him until we made it back to class, and even then he smiled and waved goodbye before sitting down.

It felt like forever until the last bell rang. Ugh, all of that class time daydreaming and jotting notes was unbearable. Time seemed to sit right on the hour hand of the clock and slept for a bloody long time. If there were gym classes starting I would've been able to enjoy some of the day, but a girl could only wish...

"Have a nice day, Takemono-san, "Ryuko said.

I might've been able to talk to her if she hadn't slipped out the door like Speed Racer. While picking up my stuff the same girls from before waved at me. I waved back then they followed after Ryuko.

As I watched them go my notebook fell off my desk. I picked it up, dusting the dirt off, and just as I was gonna put it away there was a flash of ink on one of the pages. I flipped the parchment over.

The note left in it was written by someone with stylish kanji. It read:

_"I copied the notes you missed in Calculus today. But please don't push yourself over the limit. The first day is always the hardest. If you need any help, you can ask me whenever you need._

_Ryuko Michiko."_

That was weird. If she supposedly is the "Ice Princess", then why was she being so friendly? Was her note just her way of picking on me, or was there something going on that I didn't know about?

* * *

_A/N: _

_*Easter egg-Does anyone recall a certain episode in the first season of Kuroko no Basket? (wink wink nudge nudge)*_


	2. A Swim Club?

Chapter Two:

"Oh-my-God, you have got to be kidding me!"

Not that Mom and Dad ever noticed, but I do not have time to walk my kid brothers to school every day. They made me walk them to school once again, and these twerps wanted nothing more than to ruin me. The last scene they made was almost laughable compared to what they had put in motion next.

"Hey, Sis!-'thurp!'-What'cha-thurp!-doin'-thurp-over there?" Daniel laughed.

"Ne-ne, Onee-'thurp!'-san!"

"Onee-thurp-san!"

They were blowing raspberries with their tongues. Mid-sentence. Squatting or lifting their legs like they were farting. In the middle of the sidewalk!

I passed by an electricity pole. I was almost tempted to bang my head right into a loose nail sticking out from it. But those Things would've found a way to dishonor my death.

" 'Ano' _(Umm)_, you two, if you need to go to the bathroom, you should've gone before we left, " I said in a sickly sweet voice to throw off the other people listening, "Otherwise, you'll have to hold it until I get you to school."

I saw Daniel smirk for a second before suddenly bursting out, "Uh-oh! I gotta go now!"

Then I saw him proceeding to take off his pants.

"Oh, God, no!"

He didn't have enough time to pull his boxers off his hips once I picked up the two and ran the rest of the way. The people on the sidewalk stared at me. I was just a random teenager to them carrying two small boys under her arms, one of them holding onto their pants along the way. Totally nothing wrong with that...says the girl whose life is practically hell with twin hellions by her side.

I saw a car pass by on the road, and I thought, _Darn, I missed my chance for eternal rest. I was just a minute away, too..._

At the elementary gate I threw the two into the courtyard and yelled, "Go crap in the school yard, you dumb dogs!"

"See you after school, Sis!"

"M-leh!" I grunted.

What sucked last night was that Mom and Dad hounded my ass for not walking the "precious angels" home from school. Because of that they decided to make me walk them back and forth to and from school every-single-day..._Ugh, why don't they try walking their mutts to and from school just once? Then they might get a taste of my bitter medicine..._

I was comforted by the fact that I could manage to get to school on time with everyone else. I past through the gates and saw two other people zipped behind a sakura tree. I recognized them as Samantha and Misuzu-chan, so I thought I'd say 'hi'. When I did, this is what I heard:

"Misuzu-san may have been touched on the train!"

"Wait," I said, "like, bump 'touched' or illegally 'touched'?"

"Illegally."

"Misuzu-chan! Who touched you?!"

"N-"

"It's okay, hon'. You can tell us."

Okay, so that was something to jump start my morning. I'd heard stories of perverts preying on innocent girls on trains, but I never thought it'd happen around this old dump.

Then I said, "We'll have to call the police, y'know?"

"Oh, phooey! If this pervert is out there now, then we'll hafta' get 'em ourselves!"

"Nah, who knows who this person is. If it were some wimp, then I'd say, 'hell, yeah, let's get 'em!'. But what if they had a weapon?"

"You're talkin' to a girl who's lived in the US! Where I'm from I've seen my daddy use different guns while deer huntin' so many times that I'd know how to take apart that gun in less than ten seconds!"

"A-no!"

_Who was that? Did I just hear a shriek from Misuzu?_

I turned to the side and there I saw Misuzu, huffing and nearly red in the face. Both Sam and I stared at her.

"No one touched me. I never even got onto the train this morning...I'm sorry if there was some sort of misunderstanding.."

"Oh, thank the Lord! You had me so worried!"

"Misuzu-chan, don't scare us like that!" I told her.

Just when all of that was settled, the bell rang for first class to start.._Aww, damnit! Class!_

"I can't be late again!"

_Sorry, guys, but it's survival of the fittest. If I'm late, I'll be facing Jabba the Butt again_, I apologized in my head.

I sped down the hall hoping that the Big Man wasn't outside the classroom. No one turned up there but me, so I felt confident enough to sneak in.

Just as I had stepped up to the door, something black blocked the entrance and thrusted me to the floor.

"Excuse me, Miss. Are you a student in this classroom?"

I glared at the person above me. Black hair, somehow still young, black suit, green eyes. _Who does he think he is? We're not in bloody London, you 'twit'! And you think you're from the UK with all that butler stuff.._

"Are you alright, miss?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

I brushed the weirdo aside to get to my seat. He disappeared by the time I sat down, thank God, and the teacher waddled right at the nick of time. From the corner Ryuko sat up straight, completely ignoring everyone else. Just sensing her next to me reminded me of yesterday with that note and what the other girls said about her. I mean, seriously, a nerd like her-spoiled rotten? Everything about her cried out "helpless, dainty animal". A damsel. How could someone like that have so much power that she could manipulate people to get whatever she wanted? Was it because of her name? Is her rich life just so boring that she feels the need to torture people?

_What about the stupid note?! What'd she mean by it? Is she intimidating me or WHAT?!_

I was determined to settle this for myself once and for all. The constant nagging in my head of not knowing was driving my crazy. I was just sitting in my seat shaking my leg and trying to taking notes! Every time I heard her eraser rubbing on the paper or a scritch of her pencil I grew more agitated. It was like some force from her side of the room was trying to drill a hole in my head. Through that morning I gripped my pencil and thought,_ I need to talk to this chick! Clear things up. If she's really targeting me like they say she is, she'd down-right say it or try to deny it with some kind of weird, evil face. If not then I guess I just brush it off and let it go._

_But right now I just need to know!_

I had a plan in the back of my head that seemed golden. At the lunch bell, I would start out with asking her about yesterday, then work up to the note. That was what was supposed to have happened, but then I heard someone say, "Hey, Takemono!"

The three girls from yesterday walked up to me. One of them stepped up.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Mm, nothin'. How's the view from class?"

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Y'know, you sitting next to Ryuko."

Beside me, Ryuko flinched.

"It's fine...I guess."

"Yeah..remember what I said before?'

"Uh.."

"About you-know-who?'

I looked back at Ryuko. In my hand I scrunched the note she left me yesterday thinking that I'd save it for another time. But then I felt the note slide out of my grasp.

"Oh-my-God!"

All three of them squished next to each other to read the open note.

"What a snob!"

"She's totally stuck-up!"

"What a bitch!"

They turned to her with furious expressions. Ryuko looked at me for one moment, her eyes looking desperate, and then stood up and left. The others scoffed in her direction.

"Y'know what? You should tell her to back off! She's totally sadistic!"

"Let's do Takemono a favor and get rid of it."

"Totally!"

The girl in the middle held the note out by the top and ripped it right down the center. I felt a lump in my throat as I watched them shred it. It was like I wanted to stop them, stand up and yell, but I didn't know why. _Why should I keep the note anyway? Wasn't it threatening? Weren't they right about her? She left without a word...so wouldn't that mean that she didn't deny it to be a threat?_

I balled my hand into a fist. The one that held the letter. But it stung at my palm. I..was bleeding..? _How did I cut myself?_

Then it hit me: the other girl grabbed it from me a minute ago. It sliced my hand...

"Ouch.." I said a little too late.

"Hey, Takemono, where're you goin'?"

I walked out of the classroom to the nurse's office. I was only focused on the pain. The blood started to form a long, dotted, crimson line along my palm. Yet I was absolutely calm. _I've never liked the sight of blood. I am still scared of it to this day. So why am I so calm?_

"Hey, Takemono-chan!"

Just what I needed...it was the Bishonen..

"Takemono-chan! Are you headin-Hey, what happened to your hand?"

It made me sick to hear myself say something to him because of my breathy response. That proved that I wasn't calm: I was in shock. Everything inside me began to panic.

"I'm going to-"

Beads of blood were forming across my hand. I felt my stomach churn.

"C'mon! Let's get you to the nurse, Takemono-chan!"

He grabbed my other wrist and ran down the hallway. I could feel other people stare at the two of us, both of us nearly hand in hand in public and running like freaks while the teachers started to poke their heads out of their classroom.

I would be insanely furious if it weren't for him holding my wrist. It felt warm..his hand on me, I mean. Like, I'd never experienced something like that before. I wanted to be mad, but I couldn't. He was comforting to me and I was starting to feel as if I were walking on the clouds. _But that's probably because you're still in shock_, a voice in my head reminded me.

"Excuse me!" Hazuki pardoned himself as he threw open the nurse's door.

The nurse stood up from her desk, just about to demand an explanation when Hazuki interrupted, "I'm sorry, but my friend was cut. She needs it to be looked at!"

She grumbled as she stepped in front of me. I tried biting my tongue as the nurse gripped my hand with a steel force. I didn't want to puke at the sight of blood in front of the others, but it was hard when she was nearly holding it open. Then nurse pulled me closer to her cabinet so she could bandage my hand. But then she darted some ointment on it. I wanted to scream! It stung so much and there was more blood starting to spread on my palm.

_Oh my God, I'm gonna puke! No, I'm gonna puke, and then faint. Which is so much worse!_

I swallowed back the burning acid that crawled up my throat. The smell of blood...all metallic and thick..

I reached back for something to grip in my other hand, her desk or the chair, while trying not to move at the same time. There was just air brushing my palm, and I became more anxious. When I was about to retrieve my hand, something warm slowly touched my fingertips. Sneaking a look back I glanced behind my shoulder.

_Oh..my..God!_

His hand was in mine. His HAND was in mine!

_What do I do?! Who do I what?! The damage is already done! The nurse probably saw our hands and she'll throw us out or something! What the hell do I do?!_

And then I felt the coarse fabric of his uniform sleeve. He held out his wrist for me. But why?

_...Damnit, I don't care at this point! It's better than puking!_

Of course, I was stupid enough to try to grab his wrist. I only got a fistful of his sleeve as the nurse glanced up at us. He had tried to conceal our hands that way, and looked at her with a boyish little grin.

_Sneaky little punk. Cheeky monkey!_

The nurse cautiously glanced back down to my hand and then told me, "Make sure to keep that hand clean when you get home."

"Okay," I mumbled.

I slapped away his wrist and walked right out of that room. Honey Chuckles thanked her, and a moment later I heard his footsteps behind me.

"Takemane-san!"

Then he said in my ear, "Oy, Takemane-san!"

"Takemono...It's Takemono.."

Both of us stopped on the top step to the roof. I pouted at him with my arms folded over my chest, being ginger about my bandaged hand at the same time.

"I-I'm sorry..'Ano', is your hand any better now?"

"Yeah, it's fine, " I said dryly.

"That's good. I was just worried that you were sick. You were pale..."

"...I don't like blood..."

_Why did I just say that?! Did he-_

"Oh, I see."

_Damnit!_

"B-But don't you dare tell anybody! Especially about what you did in there!"

"What'd I do?"

"Don't act dumb! You-! You-you..touched my hand!"

I tried my best to keep my voice lowered in case anyone overheard me.

"I'm sorry, I just thought you-"

"It doesn't matter now...J-Just don't tell...please?'

He looked at me with some kind of concerned puppy look. It was because I was weak. Hazuki found my one weakness and had did something that wasn't allowed in public, and I was desperate to keep that between us. If anyone had found out...

"Okay. I promise."

_Just like that? He'd promise something so easily to someone he doesn't know?_

I didn't believe it at first, but he smiled at me and told me that he'd keep it between us.

His friends opened the door from the opposite side to check on him. Hazuki excused himself and left. Just like that.

_He's obviously teasing me. He won't keep any promise with me..._

But I felt like that wasn't true. I felt like he was telling the truth, and that I didn't deserve something nice...not after that scared pair of eyes from Ryuko were borring into my memory. Like I had done something wrong...

* * *

"Ella-chan!"

Someone grabbed my shoulder.

"You shouldn't stress yourself this much. If something's botherin' you, you can tell me about it."

It dawned on me that I had left school with Samantha after seeing the guys in the hall. Hazuki and his friend.

I then remembered that I caused quite the stir for my friends, storming off without Sam who I dragged out of the classroom to talk to, and even slammed my head into my locker to get Hazuki out of my mind. All that did was make me black out for a minute...

"Hazuki ticks me off."

I mean,..well, yeah. Hazuki does push my buttons and I have no idea why he's always so cheerful and..and-

"Okay...that's a start."

I scoffed. _How am I supposed to explain this?_

"Okay, that's an understatement. I hate him..but at the same time he's-he's-y'know! How do you say it?"

" 'Kawaii' _(cute)_?"

"Sure, whatever. So, whenever I see him I feel ticked off and I want to shout at him, but I also feel girly and giddy when he looks..ugh. Does that even make any sense?"

"Yeah, I understand. Do you want me to tell you what I think?"

I shifted my weight on my other foot.

Then she proceeded, "Well, I can say that you're feelin' somethin' complicated. You get goofy around him yet angry, and you want to hide it so you try to ignore him and pass him off...right?

"Technically, that's considered a crush. But so soon into the year...I say don't worry. Take your time to get to know him and then you decide how you feel. Pursue him if you want, or don't bother with him. It's up to you."

"Oh-my-God! 'Like him'? Are you-"

_Wait a minute...can it-no-! No! I barely even know him! How can she be so sure if it's love?_

I wanted to ask Samantha about it but she was too busy with someone else. It turned out to be Tachibana-kun, the tall and oversize bulky hunk who Hazuki called one of his friends. I'd heard my classmates talk about him. He had a nice smile and greenish-kinda-brown mucky hair, but a pushover of a personality for my taste. I didn't know why he was outside with use until I saw him holding a lime green handkerchief in his hand.

"Ah, Tachibana-kun!"

He stopped and held out the cloth to her.

"You dropped this after you left. I'm glad I was able to catch up to you."

"Goodness, I'm sorry you had to do that for me!"

I watched them awkwardly smile at each other after she bowed in apology. It was so polite and broken up with silence that it hurt to look at them.

"Ei, don't be sorry. I'm not.."

_Holy shi-a-a-a-That sounded like a flirt. Flirt alert!_

I looked at the back of Samantha's head wondering what she'd do next. I could hear the nervousness in Tachibana's voice as he apologized, "Oh, I'm sorry. I hope I didn't say anything-uh-well-I-"

Then he hightailed it out of there towards the school gate with only a short, "See you tomorrow," to leave behind.

_So much for her telling me that I'm love struck! That was some moment they had there._

"Can you feel the aw-kward to-night?" I teased.

"Well, it looks like someone has finally cheered up!"

"Ha! Talk about 'shy couple'. Can I say that you two are just so 'cu-ute' together?"

She laughed, but then she responded like I hit a nerve. Before I could say something else, she said she needed to go home and left.

_I think there's something else that made her upset. I must've reminded her...hmm..nah! She'll-She'll be fine._

That night I got another lecture about leaving the Dweebs to walk home by themselves, but what Mom and Dad didn't know was that they kept their uniforms on and walked around in town to go steal candy from one local store. They found me after I left Samantha, and once again, they got me into trouble.

_"One more time and we'll take away something from your room!"_

_Yeah, and yet when the little idiots yacked up their dinner and you found candy wrappers in their pockets, you let them off the hook. Nice parenting there..._

I was still ticked off by the next day, more so when Hazuki came up to our group with a club form. I heard him talking about it earlier, but I didn't think he'd actually want to create a new club. He tried convincing me that morning, and I agreed to it because one:) I thought it was a joke, and two:) because I just wanted him to shut up. So I had basically signed myself up for hell.

Everyone but Misuzu and Matsuoka signed up. Matsuoka sat on the sidelines and my other friend said she'd think about it. What was really concerning then was that she grew pale when she heard the word "swim" and the word "club" put together. My guess was that she didn't like to swim, but then I remembered that as kids we played on the beach nearly all the time.

_There was that one day when we were kids and my parents and I left..she wouldn't come out of her room to say goodbye._

Whatever the reason, it took her longer than a week to give her answer. We went to the store that Sunday, the entire club and I. Samantha had to come over to my house to get a ride to the stores the guys were going to (for reasons too horrible to describe...work. Like, actually work on the pool since our school was so lazy and country bumpkin that they made us students clean everything for them), and the two little devils were all over her. They even snuck into the backseat with her and me. Oh, was that a sight to behold. I'd never seen them act so innocent like that before. But in that car they were sucking up to her as if they were on a mission.

I was glad that Mom and Dad didn't let the Dweebs in with us. Things got crazy when we went into the department store...Nanase taking off his clothes to dip his feet into a fish tank of water and all. Yeesh...

_What would've been funny would be if Misuzu were there and saw him. It's obvious that she likes him with all those times I've caught her staring at him..At least I think she does, anyway..._

_But if she saw him like that then I'd gladly capture the moment on camera. It'd be hysterical._

We got all of our tools from the store together by lunchtime at school the next day to fix the pool. We got some paint, some cement-like stuff, and whatever else I didn't know what to call. I was just glad I got to do something plain as painting. But I had to be partnered with Honey Dweeb.

There was this one day that I remember spreading cement down on a cracked wall (or was that paint?) and Hazuki was close by while Tachibana and Samantha were clipping weeds from the fence. I heard them talking, and so I looked up and snapped, "Quit slacking and get to work!"

Only, You-Know-Who said the same thing. At the same time.

I tried my best not to gag as he had said something to me. I first said, "Hey, don't steal my words from me!", and then he's like, "O-I didn't mean to!" .

"Aww, Takemono-chan! Please don't be that way!"

"Hmph!"

Then I tried ignoring him for the rest of the day. I don't know why, but my heart was pounding the whole time..._Stupid Hazuki! Baka!_

* * *

By the end of the week we finished the pool. Misuzu and Matsuoka had finally signed up and helped our pathetic cause to make the pool decent. To me it turned out okay, nothing perfect or anything. It just looked like a regular outdoor pool.

The group, along with my senpais' teacher, Ms. Ama, celebrated "our success" with cider. The guys threw in the pool tablets (the tablets smelled funny so I didn't want to touch one), and that was that.

Until Nanase threw off his clothes and dove into the pool.

Everything became chaotic in that moment. I watched Misuzu blush to a point where her face became a cherry red, pressed against the fence, then jump and accidentally slip into the pool. And all the while the most annoying person I'd ever met is cheering on Nanase nearly in my ear. If it weren't for the concern I had for my friend Misuzu I would've punched that guy in his mouth.

I ran over to Samantha on the other side of the pool who held onto an unconscious Misuzu. While she was panicking I heard rustling in the bushes and our teacher slip on a puddle. She held onto her arm.

_Damnit, this is all nuts!_ I thought.

Thank God that Tachibana talked Samantha into calm her down. None of us knew what to do while one of us were KO'd, one with a sprain, and another on their way to hypothermia. He got her on the right track. Samantha told Hazuki to take Ms. Ama to the nurse then Tachibana to fish out Nanase. They took Misuzu to the nurse as the rest of us girls huddled close.

"There's a pervert on the loose with pictures of Misuzu's panties on his phone!" Samantha explained to Matsuoka and I.

"Pervert?!"

"What do ya wanna do, Samantha?"I asked.

"Let's go kill the lil' bastard!"

I was the first on the run. I headed straight out of the gateway and towards the school. If anything, the guy would've tried to throw us off and take different cuts and corners to get to the main gate. And if he managed to run his way there we'd never find him in town.

That was so not cool with me.

The thought of some jerk getting off on pictures of Misuzu was enough drive for me to keep running at top speed. I nearly tore down a couple of people in the hallway like a bowling ball and pins. It wasn't my fault that they were in my way.

After making to the main gate, I could make out a figure in the distance, a male student who had been running slow to a stop and trip. He was looking at something else as he was getting back up. So I took a chance and leapt at him.

"Rot in hell, 'hentai' _(pervert)_!"

I felt myself collide into his body while everything became a blur. First there was us rolling, and then I was the first to land on the ground. Then everything had became clear again, and I looked up. It was definitely a guy. Red, piecy hair all sweaty from running (he smelled like B.O. from that run, too. Ewwgh) and hazel, frantic eyes. He had guilt written all over his face.

But above all, he was looking at me with red in his cheeks.

And there was the sensation of hands on my chest. On my boobs.

I screamed at the top of my lungs and swung my fist right into his head. Down he went like the ton of wasted space that he was.

"Ella, what did he-" Samantha asked as she came to my rescue.

"He just groped me! Oh my God, he's so dead!"

She laughed (laughed!) and told me, "Don't worry about that now. He's out for good. You punched his lights out, Ella!"

Samantha helped me up and then turned to the guy on the ground. His very existence made me want to gag.

"What do we do now?"

"I dunno...we could throw him into the pool...or bury him six feet under..."

"No-o!"

"No one else would know!"

"It's not the end of the world when he fondled your-"

"Yes it is! I can't get married now..."

There was that, but there was also my status to think about. I'd already managed to be an average student to everyone in the school, but him going around and bragging about groping my...breasts would (or could..) make me look bad. Mostly a victim, but others would find it funny. All in all, it would ruin my reputation!

Sam made a fuss about taking him to the nurse's, so we did,...well, more like Tachibana and Nanase who caught up to us, and got him to get rid of the photos (at the same time he boldly declared his fetish for women's swimsuits...the weirdo. I was just glad to not have used my fist again on his disgusting face). Misuzu also woke up, and after a long chat, we officially became friends (not that we weren't friends before with all that we'd been through, but I was able to get her to say our first names. And that right there is the real deal of friendship)...along with the boys, too (not Bikini Freak, though).

This would've made a perfect ending if Misuzu didn't faint when she saw Nanase shirtless.

"Aww, Nanase! You just made her faint again!" yelled Samantha.

"Wha-"

"You're indecent! Where're your clothes?"

"By the pool."

"Then go get 'em on!"

"Now?"

"It's either you walk out of here or I'll send you flying towards the pool!"

"Ha-ha-ha! Haruka-chan flying...like a flying fish!" Hazuki laughed.

" 'Saba' ?" Nanase said.

"Just go get'cher clothes already!"

_Where's my freaking 'keitai' (cellphone) when I needed it?!_

* * *

_A/N: Hey there, readers. I've come back from an unexpected hiatus with a little more free time to work on all five of the Iwatobi series. I'll try to make this short so we can get to the good stuff._

_Ella and Nagisa: I see that Ella is very sassy. She has a comment for almost everything, and has this sarcasm that can either be funny or insulting. And Nagisa is nothing but puppies and fluffy unicorns-until he tries to convince others to do something. I think that's when he shows a little more to his personality than just "happy-happy-joy-joy". He's adorable like that, but I find it amusing and relieved to see that his upbeat and her sassiness pretty much balance them out. Yet Ella as a tsundere is getting a bit difficult to describe for me. I'm gonna need to do some more research. *Flint Lockwood voice* To the computer!_

_But as for them getting together...we'll see. I'm inching my way closer towards fluff and more detailed relations. I'm just gonna do some baby steps. So please bear with me while I'm writing down all of these new ideas to bring them together. I promise I will make it as awesome as I can and get down to the "fluff and stuff"._

_Also, I'm updating the other second chapters of my stories for translations for Japanese I use in between dialogue and point of view. I hope they're okay in terms of reading them or spelling. Please, please, please, lemme know if I screwed up on something. I'm always looking forward to hearing from others on things like this. The first chapters I'll comb through for spell check. I just checked this one and found itty bitty words that I skipped over that were mis-typed (whoospies! Oh, gosh, that's embarrassing to me!...)._

_Other than that, I look forward to seeing you in the next chapter. Shoutout to "Juiji" who favorited the story earlier. Thank you so much!_


	3. Attack on Shota

Chapter Three:

"Is that a bet, Hazuki?" I dared.

"I'm challenging you, Ella-chan, to see who gets more members first!" Hazuki yipped happily like a puppy.

"You're-on!"

He thinks he can challenge me without considering how many disadvantages he is at? Puh-lease! I'll mop the floor with this pansy and be on my merry way within the lunch period. It'll be that simple!

Oh...I guess I skipped ahead. Fine...let's go back..

If I'm right, then before all this was the giant fiasco of Kasumi passing out in the Nurse's Office after seeing Nanase in his swim trunks. Everybody was running around and making a fuss of it when I was the only one wishing I had my cell phone with me. I had left it back in the locker rooms by the pool, and I had to grab my bag and Kasumi's after Samantha volunteered the two of us to take Kasumi back to her house. Their teacher and the adviser, Ama-sensei, told us where to go, but I already knew that street where she lived. It may have been a different house they moved into than when they first stayed in many years ago, but I remembered the way like it was on the back on my hand (although, Sam would probably say that I didn't help whatsoever taking Kasumi home. It's not my fault at all! I'm not strong and I was the one with the bags. I was helping!).

Kasumi's mom recognized me after staring for a little bit. Maybe it was the longer and highlighted hair that was different or the blossoming figure of a young lady that made it hard to tell I was the squatty little brat from way back, but her mom hadn't changed a bit. She still had the same young look and bobbed haircut, to say the least. After seeing her I remembered that she and Kasumi were much alike. What was that phrase again? "Like mother, like daughter?". Something like that, anyway...

She let us take Kasumi upstairs to her room and offered to make us tea. Samantha piped in (once again) that we were fine (even though I could've gone for some water for my parched throat), and so we were left to take care of Kasumi until she woke up. I was in the midst of missing a TV show I wanted to watch if I didn't leave within the next half-hour, given that it took awhile to go back from this side of the town. But there wasn't a slightest chance of getting to see it. _Oh well, _I thought, _So much for that...If only Kasumi hadn't oggled Nanase's damn lean bod! _

In the mean time we had to wait for Kasumi I wasn't in the mood for sitting in a corner and staring at a wall. If I were missing a show, I was going to compensate. And that meant that I could easily snoop through a huge cardboard box of old manga laying out on the floor. Samantha joined with me in glossing over the yellow-paged manga and pulling out some to read (she'd also want to say that I wasn't on my best behavior and blah-blah-blah, but there would probably be even more after that. I really didn't care about it then or what we were talking about. She'd give specifics, but I wasn't in the best of moods. So I don't care to remember a lot then). The ones we took out were from the series "Aino-chan! Let's Go!", an old one that discontinued when I was in junior high. Seeing the first few pages brought back memories, and I ended up reading half-way through it before Kasumi woke up.

And that's where things got strange. Well, first I ended up falling on the floor because I was laying on her desk chair on my stomach (I wanted to see how long I could balance myself while reading, duh...), with which Samantha just had to make a comment about, but that wasn't the main point. Kasumi didn't want us to go through that box, and at first I thought it was because it was manga or that it was technically "invading personal space", but she couldn't bring herself to say it straight away. She made up a dumb excuse that it was "weird" to have manga. In my mind, that seemed too crazy. She was definitely hiding something, and that something ended up in my hands when I looked through the box while asking, "What? Reading manga? Why would reading comi-hey, what the hell is this?"

A black notebook with all kinds of rubbish and nonsense glued and taped onto its front. I felt like I picked up some kind of "hentai" comic from the adult's section because of how bizarre it looked. And it was even weirder to read the title: " 'Sorcery Guide to the Perverse and Divine'. 'Written by Osana Magische Flugel'."

"Did you just say something in German?" Samantha asked.

Kasumi had her head burrowing in her carpet like an ostrich after apologizing. All I could think was, _So she was a 'chuuni'? Really? She's owning up to being something like that when she was younger?! _

Of course, I had to explain what a 'chuuni' was to Samantha. Unless someone was an anime fan from America or otaku from Japan, no one would've understood the concept of junior high life. And that's probably why they came out with the anime series actually called "Chuunibyou".

Being Samantha, she took it like a "bleeding heart" sap and told Kasumi that we'd forget this entire thing ever happened, even making me swear to do the same. I could look over it, but finding out that someone like Kasumi used to be a 'chuuni' was about the most shocking and funniest thing I'd heard. Kasumi is so shy she blushes and practically cowers behind Samantha every time someone taller than her walks by in the hall. How could she have gone from "I believe in my power of darkness! Fear me!" to "I'm so helpless I can't even stand up when a gust of wind hits me"? And her tiny little voice chanting some "spell" from her "spellbook"? You've got to be kidding! But I couldn't understand it for a second when Samantha tried to level with Kasumi that she used to pretend to be a fairy princess in elementary school all the time. _Are you kidding? That's not going to make anything better! _

Not too soon after that both Samantha and I had to leave. Kasumi and her mom saw us out the door and we hit the streets as the sun was setting. But the walk was awkward. Nothing but silence.

I wanted to say something to her but where would I have started? _"Yeah, so you used to play 'fairy princess'? Oh, me too! How 'bout it?" _

_No...Just. No.._

Thank God she spoke up before I did. I was not at all prepared to walk down that road of awkward silence. So it was great and all...yeah...until she left...and I had stumble across the one person I didn't want to see nearby.

"Oi! Ella-chan!"

_Well, screw me blind! Where do I go the next time this happens?! _

I looked the left and right to see which shortcut I could use to avoid Hazuki. But Quick Bronze, because he was fast as a racehorse, was on me in seconds with that stupid open-mouthed smile on his face.

"Where're you goin', Ella-chan?" he asked while nearly bouncing up and down on his feet.

"Home...why?"

"I'm goin' home, too. But I have to ride the train..."

_Thank God..._

"Oh, okay...Then I think I'll go..."

Spinning the other way around I headed the way I was supposed to go. A few seconds later he's at my heels following me like some poor dog.

" 'Neh, neh', wait for me, Ella-chan!"

I cranked the jogging level to "Axe-Murderer is on My Ass". He started running after me.

"Aren't you riding the train?!" I shouted while zipping down the street.

"I got time!"

"Well, I don't!"

" 'Chotto'-"

I didn't look in time to see the slanted block in the sidewalk. My shoe dug right in, and I nearly fall right back onto my stomach if it hadn't been for him. He caught me by the hand and pulled me into him. The last time he took my hand was in the Nurse's Office...and I felt just as tingly and gross like before. Even for a short guy, his hand was slightly bigger than mine, but not as calloused as I would've imagined...not that I'd ever imagined what his hand felt like.

_Pull yourself together! He violated your personal bubble! _screamed a voice in my head.

I puffed my chest out and turned around to hound him for grabbing me, but when he smiled and sighed, "Thank goodness! I was going to tell you that the sidewalk wasn't safe...", I fell apart mentally like a broken down car. It definitely wasn't the time to be girly and embarrassed in front of him, but my knees were buckling and my cheeks were red. If he looked into my eyes, he'd know for sure that something was up.

"Why-Why'd you do that?" I growled.

"Why'd I help you?"

"Why did you touch me? I thought I said before that..."

But I couldn't bring myself to finish saying it. I was losing my ground.

"Oh, 'gomen, gomen'. It was just a spur of the moment...I guess..."

He airly laughed and tried to play it off, so for the sake of time I brushed it away with, "Just don't do it again..."

"By the way, how is Kasumi-chan?"

"...She's fine."

"That's good. Hopefully she'll be alright to go to school tomorrow. We're thinking of having a meeting at Haru-chan's house."

That made me shift into a different mood.

"Who's 'we'? I never heard anything about it earlier."

"Haru-chan, Mako-chan, and I were gonna talk to you all about it until-"

"Fine. Whatever...Is it for the club?"

"Uh-huh. You coming?"

I muttered, "Sure...whatever," as my cheeks set aflame again.

Even without looking at him I could tell he was grinning.

_Whatever...it's not like I'm giving in to his way...Or having a crush on him...That Baka..._

Thanks to the train station he left in a hurry to get home, and so did I. I returned to try and find a moment of peace to myself while my little bit of hell was watching me from my bedroom door smirking like cheeky little monkeys. Those evil little gits decided to spit paper wads at me from the dinner table that night "as punishment for not walking them back home". Seems like they wanted to harp the same things Mom and Dad were grinding on me for. When that happens, I just try and shove them aside so I can lock myself in my room for the rest of the night. But thanks to Hazuki and him taking my hand I barely slept a wink.

* * *

"Hey, Takemono!"

"Oh, hey, ummm...Chiyo...wasn't it?"

My classmates from before came to me at lunch, then when the final bell rang and everyone was heading out. They asked what made me leave the last time they were with me, that time they ripped apart the letter from Ryuko, and so I swept it under the rug saying, "Oh, I was a bit sick that day. Woozy, I guess..."

"I know what you mean. Ryuko's attitude sure is a disease."

"Totally..." one of the three agreed.

"Ah...yeah...yeah..." I sighed. _No idea where that came from, but I better just play along..._

"So, we all need to get together," Chiyo suddenly burst out. "I think we should go out to karaoke or fast food. How about it?"

"Sorry, I got to go to a club meeting after school..."

"Aww, can't you skip?"

"No, I promised Nagis-"

_Why-The-HELL did I just say that?!_

"You mean Hazuki? The real short guy?"

"Uh...yeah..."

"You're in a club together?"

"The..swim club..."

"Huh...sounds like you guys get along. How much?"

She said that like she were hinting toward me really "knowing" him. That was the time I needed to shut it down before I'd make a fool of myself.

"Outside of the classroom? Not much...he's kinda...really giddy...Maybe a bit too much."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," she said disappointingly. "He's not much to look at, unlike his upperclassmen friends he hangs out with."

"You mean Tachibana and Nanase?"

"Oh, yes! They are so good-looking!"

"Nanase-kun is so cool!" the third girl chirped.

"And Tachibana-kun is so tall and so hot!" the second giggled.

_And yet those two have their own weird sides to them like Nagisa..._

"Man, you're so lucky! You've got all the boys for yourself!"

"Oh, no...really?"

"Of course! You gotta talk to them for us!"

"Yeah, yeah! Introduce us to them! We'd never be able to go up to them in person by ourselves."

"Well, I guess it's okay-"

"Yay! You are so nice, Takemono! I hope we can be friends with you!"

I smiled and nodded, thinking that, just maybe, I'd have the opportunity to make friends by being as good as this. _Maybe even become class rep so that I'd become most popular in a matter of days than the year...Sounds good enough for me...Hehehehe..._

Even though everyone forms their own groups/cliques by this time, being picked for class rep. or something similar was a guaranteed success to being noticed. It's decent for me when I'm a newbie here with two upperclassmen friends and a part of a club that has a standard amount of attention drawn to it. But I could do better.

The three made me promise to go out after school as soon as I had a free day and left when they saw my friends in the hallway waiting for me. From there we walked with the guys to Nanase's house. Oddly enough, it was quaint for what I took him for. There was enough space for all of us to sit in the living room. But real skinny hallways.

Our so-called "meeting" was a load of worthless discussion about what we were planning to do in the future. We should've thought about it after we established who's actually good at swimming and who can barely float on top of the water, but I guess we need to feel good about ourselves to set a goal.

Save for that the first thing I'd heard come out of Hazuki was, "What about our captains? What do you say?"

Thing of it was, the girls' team hadn't assigned jobs yet. We probably did on the club form, but no one really knew which job should go to who. We had to finish the pool. That's a good enough excuse to putting off everything else. That and the lanky pervert from that day who also decided to follow us to Nanase's house. He watched us talk with a creepy, fixated look on his face. Yuck...

I quickly snagged the Treasurer spot because a) counting money and keeping track was easy and b) the other jobs sounded boring. Samantha was the only one without a job (Kasumi sneezed at the right time Nagisa was handing out "Vice Captain", then Sam lost to jan-ken for it). But she wasn't sure if she wanted it.

"I'm already Treasurer, Sam. And Kasumi-chan seems to be preoccupied at the moment.."

"Wha-ii-choo!"

"C'mon, Samantha-chan! You'll be a great leader!" Happy-Go-Lucky Hazuki exclaimed.

"Samantha-senpai, you'd do great as a captain!" Color-Me-Pervert chimed in.

_Where does he get the gall to say something in this private conversation?!_

"Who invited you in?!" I snapped at him.

"I've been here the same time you have..."

"I guess if no one else can do it..." admitted Sam.

I knew she'd come around. Everyone else (who was an active member) was equally pleased, even the loser in the back. And he took advantage of our new leadership to worm his way in as manager when Kasumi, Samantha, and I left to go home. He convinced Sam to let him join with suck-up remarks and promises to behave, but I saw right through him. Sam didn't.

It completely ruined my day after that, Sunday, to know that come Monday he'd be accepted into our club and take "Manager" position. Plus, the Little Devils stuck gum in my hair so I had to spend an hour or so using peanut butter to get it out.

All that time I thought that Sam wasn't making the right decision. What if she would keep making mistakes like that and end up ruining our club? How were we supposed to live with that? How could she think that that guy was equipped to handle "Manager". He wasn't even qualified to hand out tissue packets at a lottery stand!

...Sad as it sounds, she might not even be able to adapt to "Captain" as well as we thought she could be. Heck, I'd probably be better at it than her. If it were me, I'd keep perverts like him out of the club. No exception. Kicking ass and taking names!

So that's where my determination led me to before. Standing in the second-floor hallway with that weirdo Nagisa on a Monday being challenged to a recruitment battle. If I'd win, then I'd definitely know for sure that my skills and will were enough to have me as "Captain". Although, we didn't mention any punishment for the loser. Lucky for him I was in a generous mood for squabs of his kind. I'd need to be righteous and forgiving as a leader, so I might have well started there.

Nagisa ran one way, and I headed in the opposite. There were more people ahead of me, unknowing of my people skills and persuasion that'd have them begging to join the club.

"Hey, there! How about joining the swi-"

Then they kept on going. Still chatting with each other.

_Those limy bastards! Screw them if they won't take the opportunity to make themselves useful._

I brushed it off and moved on to the group. And then another...and another...then a straggler...and some more...

By the time our lunch break was coming to an end I was breathless and sore from carrying the fliers the team made.

_This was completely...useless!_

I didn't want to go back empty-handed and have my name smothered in dirt by the rotten lug. If I could save my dignity I'd feign an injury and call off the battle until the next time. While walking back I thought of which injuries I could go for. Sprained wrist or ankle...stomach cramp?

_But all of those involve me going to the nurse, and the last time that happened Nagisa..._

_No, I am never going to think about that again. He has too much of my attention on him and the last thing I need to be thinking that I like him!_

That's what I decided when I turned the corner. However, the sudden bump into another person made my brain jumble that I couldn't remember exactly what I told myself, even when I landed on my ass and not on the head. All of my fliers went sailing into the air like birds.

The other person apologized, but I knew they didn't mean it.

"Don't waste your br-"

If it were anyone else I would've pushed past them, but I didn't expect to see Ryuko on her knees with some of the fliers in her hands.

_Great, I probably look like a freak since I didn't get enough sleep last night. And I'm cranky..._

"Ryuko-san, was it?"

I held my hand out to take the fliers back. But she didn't understand.

"The fliers...?"

"Oh, here..."

I sighed to myself after I realized that she should've kept one.

"You might as well keep one since I'm handing these out to people. At least one person is eager to take 'em..."

She glanced at the one I gave back and asked if the school really did have a swim club. Like the other times I encountered the same question I had to explain a brief history about it that I had memorized for a while.

"Yeah,...if you wanna join, that'd be a relief to us."

"Me? You'd...you'd want me to join?"

"Why not? Doesn't really matter if you can or can't swim. I'm tryin' to teach that idiot over there that he can't win a bet against me," I said with my thumb sticking out to Hazuki from a little ways down.

Maybe I wouldn't lose after all. She was interested enough to meet me at the end of the day, even though she ran away as soon as our three classmates showed up to wish me luck with Hazuki (I knew it was a joke because they were giggling in between, so I laughed with them and handed them some of the fliers). As for Ryuko, I was having difficulty after that day to win her over. I had her hooked into signing up while meeting the team, but then Hazuki just had to ruin everything to show us a "classmate" that had to join the club because of his name at the track, and then this really weird moment where Ryuko's "uncle" showed up in a tailored suit to pick her up from school. She bailed on us from there and I hadn't heard from her since. Hazuki urked me that entire week telling me that she was scared of me or that he could certainly recruit her faster than I could. I almost gave in to his mistreatment when Thursday came, the day Kou scheduled us to a joint-practice with Samezuka Academy at their school, and I was at my locker putting my outdoor shoes away. Ryuko approached me asking if she could join.

"Say what again?"

"Um...'what again'?"

"N-no! You said what about the club?"

"I-I would like to join the swim club."

I closed my locker (or slammed it, but who cares?) and asked, "Seriously?"

"I am serious."

"Do you know what this means?" I squeaked.

"I-I actually don't-"

"This means that you have saved me from social embarrassment!"

I was so happy that I didn't care if I were in public nearly hugging her hip like we were best friends, her being uncomfortable or not, or if she had a weird uncle or was still in dark to me about being a friend or foe. All that mattered was that I'd win and Hazuki wouldn't. Had I known before when I saw him bending over for air in front of the entrance with Tachibana and Nanase, I'd kick him straight in the rear and gloat about him being my homework slave for a day.

That classmate he mentioned-showed up that afternoon as we were getting together to go to Samezuka. His name was Ryugazaki, a class nerd that kept quiet in the back of class. I should've known that Hazuki would go for easy bait like that guy.

_Fine, I can play hardball, _I thought while we walked into Samezuka's natatorium.

My goal for this joint-practice was to show Ryuko that the team was decent enough to join and that our competition wasn't anything special. It wouldn't be a pushover to join, so she'd definitely want to join and I'd beat the sucker to the punch line first. I also had to make sure that she knew our new "manager" was kept on a leash so she wouldn't feel threatened. He did a lot of running around trying to take pictures of girls in their swimsuits while Samantha chased after him, so in an essence he was a dog that could only run to the end of his chain and bark. Sam was doing a sloppy job of keeping him at bay, but at the same time she had to meet the other captains of the Samezuka team and encourage Kasumi to not chicken out on practicing like a wuss.

So all was fine come the time that the girls not in swimsuits went to go get dressed and the boys took first turn to practice. I let Ryuko sit back and assess the outcome for herself, and I watch Sam take care of everything else as "Captain". One screw up and she'd probably throw away the title for something other. And I'd be there to pick up the trash...

I stood near the edge of the pool with some other girls watching a row of boys get ready to dive, one of them being Hazuki. When he started swimming, he made it seem like we were all kids in a kiddie pool with the way he smiled before he dove. Then his expression changed once he was in the water.

After him came Ryugazaki. He stepped up to the diving board, looking at the water with a serious face and waited for the whistle. The other boys' captain, Mikoshiba, blew it. They dove-Ryugazaki flopped in like an elephant in a pond. A bunch of people watched and exclaimed, "Eh?!" as he fell, then it grew deadly quiet as we all waited for him to come back up. He took too much time.

"Will Ryugaza-agh!"

I didn't even notice Ryuko next to me. She spoke up just as Nanase dove in to save the nerd and then she slipped on a puddle. Our hands happened to grasp the other as she fell, taking me down with her into the cold water.

_This wasn't what I asked for when I wanted to be popular! Now they'll all stare or laugh, for crying out loud! _

Sam stayed by the edge to ask us if we were alright as we resurfaced, but no one helped us out of the pool. Typical, but there were some that crowded around asking us the same thing Sam did and others that went to get mops to check for any other damn puddles. Kasumi was the most helpful; she gave Ryuko and I our towels.

The captains wanted us to sit out until the end of the boys' time trials, and at first I didn't want to, but soon I realized that there was more to see than just people swimming in a pool.

I hadn't thought about incidents like this would be like for captains. Sam had to go to the other captains and let them know that our team was okay and that delays like that wouldn't happen again. To me it wouldn't be that big of a deal to bring up anything like it to the captains...but when you're the face of your team you have to bow and apologize for anything out of order. I guess I wasn't considerate enough like Sam to handle the job.

_I guess I'm not as good a captain as I thought I could be when Samantha is more equipped._

_And...she's my friend...Friends don't doubt each other, right? So...I'll let the whole "captain" thing go for now...But if that pervert "Gou" slips up I'll be as quick as lightning to take his place. _

_Seems about fair.._

While sitting to the side with Ryuko I noticed Ryugazaki on her other side. The thing that caught my attention were their glasses that were as colorful and noticeable as a traffic cone. His were red and slim, and hers were kinda blue and...crooked?

I pointed it out to her that they needed fixing. She did so, but she didn't think at all that she needed goggles to swim with up next.

"Y'know you're supposed to put on some goggles instead of glasses, right?"

She watched me laugh like a schoolgirl befuddled in her own way as I was cracking up because of her. Ever since the first day I hadn't thought of what she was really like. It wasn't as important as now when she seemed kind yet was intimidating to others, including me (a little), but I never thought of her as distracted or nervous for a club event. If she were Richie Rich rich I'm sure that her family would want her to wear as much pride on her shoulders as a cow has flies buzzing around its head.

And it was funny to fall into the pool with her. I tried to imagine what our faces were like as we fell in.

"Takemono-san, are you alright?"

I stopped to answer her.

"Y'know, I never knew what to make of you since we started school, but now it just seems like you are just a magnet for bad luck. Oh my God..."

A chuckle escaped my mouth as I leaned back. Then I added, "Well, I guess I'm just laughing the pain away. But you're pretty funny. Actually we were pretty funny falling into the pool. I probably looked stupid when I splashed in. But your face-!"

She laughed at it too. Her guard let down when she started laughing into her hands, her arms then wrapped around her sides, near the verge of crying. I did mean what I told her about not knowing what to think of her. Her being a magnet would make sense, being brought into all that trouble over the letter and getting caught off-guard falling into the pool, that time where her uncle showed up included (the pain I mentioned was from when I got out of the pool. I thought my leg or foot twisted in the water, but it didn't hurt as much).

And then her magnetism for bad luck started up again. While laughing she leaned to the other side and accidentally bumped into Ryugazaki. Both of them turned to each other, both blushing hard.

_Oh, wow, so this is what they call Nerd Love._

The whole package came with awkward bowings of apology and slight brushing of the fingers as he gave her back her glasses that fell to the floor.

_I guess you could call it cute, not that I'm an expert on these kinds of things. Ugh, it's starting to hurt watching them blush..._

The silence was unbearable as well. I quickly interjected, "Oh, hey, Ryuko-san, look at Fins over there!", just to break the tension.

"Fins...?"

It was so obvious that I was pointing to Nanase at the diving board. He jumped in at the sound of the whistle. Then swam to the other end like a dolphin wiggling through the sea. I stood up with the other two to get a better look at him, totally stunned at the talent. I almost wanted to admit that he was better than me at something. Anyone could admit that knowing him closely he was too in love with water that he'd try to dunk his head in an outdoor pool in the wrong season, but I finally understood that his weakness was also his strong-suit.

We'd definitely have a shot at tournaments with him on our side. And more members as well.

" 'Ki-rei'..." gasped Ryuko.

"Looks like everyone was right. He is incredible. But he looks too happy in there, like a puppy with a bone to chew."

I wasn't going to admit defeat like that, and I nudged Ryuko in joking manner that probably shouldn't have come up. But at least she smiled.

After Nanase's turn in the pool our classmates came up to check on us and talk to the boys. It was our turn to do the practice, but suddenly Kasumi was on one of the boards getting ready to dive in.

Wait...

"Misuzu-san!"

"Kasumi!"

* * *

_A/N: 8/1/15-Hey, everyone. Thought I'd give a quick update as to where I am right now. Got back some time ago from an anime convention and had some writer's block while finishing the rest of the rough draft. Usually I'd write the whole story down in a notebook and then type it up as a final draft, but most of this chapter was re-written in a couple of hours because of how the block effected me. Whether or not you can tell the writer's block caught up at the last part to me, I hope you enjoy and I'll see you in the next chapter!_

_*Also, Happy Birthday, Nagisa! Just on time too...Well, sort of.*_


	4. Stuff it, Mary Poppins!

Chapter Four:

What do you get when you cross a cat drowning and a brick sinking?

Kasumi trying to swim, that's what!

Anyone would think I'm kidding, but no. I'm not. I completely wish I was, but no. Not one bit. How someone could suck that bad was unbelievable. I wanted it to be a dream or just her taking the piss on everyone in the room. Really...just anything but what I had witnessed. I'm not going to say that I was disgusted by it. Horrified, but I have a line that I never cross when it comes to friends. The snickering and pointing that the other people on the other side of the room did weren't even discreet. It made me look as sweet as Shirley Temple, for crying out loud! And only I'm allowed to tease my friends. They were lucky that I was concentrating my attention more on Kasumi and cheering for her. Otherwise I would've used every swear in my itinerary that I knew since childhood to make them go crying for their mum.

Kasumi looked stiff while using her arms like the bloody Queen's Guard, so I assumed that she had a cramp in her muscles. Samantha asked her the same thing when Kasumi tredged her way to the finishing point in last place, Ryuko and I at Sam's side.

"I-I'm quite...alright," Kasumi uttered.

She really wasn't. It was a mystery how she managed to walk back to our bench after trying to turn the pool into a bubble bath with just her legs.

The team looked to be speechless before she sat down. Most of them like Hazuki and Makoto tried to brush it off with nervous encouragements. But not Nanase or Ryugazaki. Those gits didn't even try to say anything to her, much less wipe the stupefied expressions off their faces. I couldn't help but feel pity for her. Being watched by a crowd of people as you swim and pathetically make last place in a time practice takes its effect on anybody. She sulked on another bench away from the group for the rest of the visit. Even if I wanted to I couldn't have done anything to make her feel better, so I went along with the others trying not to soak in her piss-poor attitude.

Samantha took her opportunity to go next. I knew it was to divert our attention from Kasumi's horror show to the real reason we where there, but after watching her take the glory it was also to show off her "almighty" form at diving. I was partially grateful-partially!-that she was a better swimmer because Ryuko needed a reason to believe that we had a chance of becoming a decent swim team...and because the Hyperactive Twat was holding me to our bet. I could feel his eyes on the back of my head every now and then like he were waiting for me to cave in. I was definitely not going to back down when my chances were so much greater than his.

After watching my captain bask in her praise and compliments, even some from Tachibana that made her giddy, I felt like she challenged me to do better with her happy expression and cheery remark, "C'mon, Ella, let's see what you can do next!"

"Hmph, I'll beat your record easily!" I dared.

"You sure about that?"

_It may have been friendly banter before, but when you get cocky like that with me I take that as a dare! _

"Just you watch me!"

I stomped onto the diving board, throwing my towel to the side, not giving a rat's ass if I was making a scene. It would've been better to have it that way so that all eyes were on me.

After I checked the clock for my starting time and the whistle blew, I pushed off from the board wanting to dazzle the team, but the idea quickly dissolved with the chlorine once I hit the water. I didn't realize that the water could be so warm when it was a bit chilly in the springtime and how relaxing or dare I say blissfully calming for someone like me. It was like I was in a good dream with warm fuzzy feelings and silenced the outside world. _Perfect, I'm getting poetic. I must be really stressed for a simple swim in a pool to soothe my nerves..._

_Though it's peaceful...screw it! I've got to beat her record! I'm aiming for athletic swimming, not synchronized! _

I kicked into full throttle while there was still time. It may have been a year or more since I had last swum in a pool, but that didn't mean I didn't know how to do the front crawl. Every one of us in each lane used that style particularly because it was the easiest, but a few among me thought they were such experts. While catching my breath I caught a glimpse at the competition in front of me. I was in the top five.

By the turn I thought I could bump it up to second place. When I slowed to spring myself from the wall I twisted a muscle wrong. It was a twinge, but enough to sock me into the losing end. To boost my speed I kept telling myself, _I can't let those elitists break me down!, _over and over until I was closing in on the other side of the pool. It didn't matter if the burning sensation in my muscles was overpowering me or the weakness from lack of sleep kept pulling me under. To be honest I was always too proud to let anything physical effect me when there was a challenge to be had. One could say that it was a strength of mine, but that particular moment wasn't a good day. If not for a second and a half, I made it to second place. The girl in the lane on the far left was the first-place champ. _Bollocks..._

"Maybe next time, sport," Samantha said as I grabbed my towel from the floor.

"Don't shove it in my face, twat," I grumbled. She was too flamboyant to not be undermining me.

I flopped onto the bench next to Kasumi. I figured I might as well add another to the pity party.

My oh-so-happy captain jumped onto Ryuko's case for the final call. The whole team cheered her on to the board as I watched carelessly with my gloomy bench seat partner. Ryuko could've said no, but she felt the need to please them, put on her goggles as she bent over on the diving board. _Why won't she just be honest and say she doesn't want to? I wouldn't after seeing me lose..._

Let's just say I felt like I was rubbed the wrong way after my botch job of a swim.

What kept my focus on the pool was Ryuko. I had no idea that she was a pro and swimming, like, athletic pro. She swam like Nanase, only more girly graceful if that makes any sense or is even possible. Seeing her take first place brought my spirit back knowing that I could shove my diamond in the rough new member in Hazuki's stupid face. Ryugazaki was average at best, but Ryuko topped the cake. She would be our saving grace for a novice team like ours, that is, if Samantha or I could get her to join. My captain didn't try to hide it that she wanted my classmate on the team when she was talking to her at the end of the last practice. With the expression on Ryuko's face I thought that Samantha came on too strong. It looked like I needed to step in afterwards to smooth things over.

Trying to start a conversation while in the locker room was a bit tough. Maybe even a little creepy, but I saved it until both of us were half dressed. The first thing that came to mind was what she thought of athletic swimming. A tacky move, but effective. Ryuko mustered a little before we heard loud voices from our 'senpai's echo off the walls from the shelves across. After a minute of it still going I went ahead and tried to break it up, telling them to get a move on.

"We're comin'! No need to get your panties in a twist!"

"It's 'knickers'! 'Knickers' in a twist!"

"_Americans say 'panties', dangit!_" she told me in her Texan, English accent.

"_Yeah, what other phrases haven't you already screwed up...?" _I shot back in my British English.

_...What? I'm allowed an opinion..._

"You do know that I can hear you mumblin' back there!" _Oh, look, she can switch back and forth between English and Japanese that fast...Egh, great, what the heck..._

"Maybe I wanted you to hear t-hey, don't look at me! I don't have my shirt on!"

When I wasn't looking Sam peeked her head around the corner and caught me indecent. She huffed and replied, "Yeah, and you're the one wanting to rush us out of here!"

"_Oh, bugger off!" _

I stopped to replay that retort in my head while Sam stared at me. She laughed a loud, and soon I realized that my voice cracked out of nowhere. I don't think that's ever happened before, especially for me to laugh at myself with her. I could've been waterlogged or there was too much water in my ear from all that swimming for all I knew. It was weird.

_How often do I even get to laugh like this with a friend? It feels like it's been so long..._

It probably had been. So for my sanity and to humor Sam I went ahead and laughed with her. Besides, laughing made me feel happier about my day than I thought it could. Almost like when I was swimming.

* * *

Ryuko left us at the Samezuka gates after we had to thank their captains for inviting us over. The "uncle" of hers stood by the other side like a creepy stalker, silent and both sharp eyes on our group. She turned to us and said in a polite voice, "I'm sorry. I'm afraid I can't ride the train back with you."

"Don't worry about it," I replied. "We'll see you later."

"Sad to see you leave so soon, but there's always school tomorrow."

_Yep. Came off too strong like I called it._

Right as Ryuko was leaving she met eyes with Ryugazaki. He and her sort of stared at each other, both red in the cheeks, before Ryuko bent over in a bow then got the hell out of dodge. I'd've done the same thing if I'd bumped my cheek to his shoulder. People like them were still scared of breaking moral code and loved their personal bubble, unlike my parents. Seeing a change of pace was amusing when I wasn't the victim of random touching. I swear I'd had too much after that wanker Gou fondled me, but having to brush off Hazuki was another matter. I thought we were competitors until the end of the day, not friends who were touchy-feely. Nope. He could not, whatsoever, respect my space.

"Neh, neh, Ella-chan," Hazuki prodded as he followed me down the street. I thought I got rid of him by the train station, but he was too quick. "Do you have to go so soon?"

"I gotta pick up my brothers."

"What? I didn't know you had younger siblings!"

"I wish I didn't..."

"What'd you say?"

"Nothing. I'm going."

"Oh!" he gasped. "I forgot! Hold on, Ella-chan!"

He didn't hesitate to grab my hand to stop me on the sidewalk, but I assumed it was also to spite me and what I asked him not to do a couple days ago. And what'd I do? I froze. Of course. Like a love-stricken idiot whose heart was pounding as rapid as a drum. Honey Nut Weirdo took my other hand while standing in front of me and continued, "Since you and I recruited people at the same time, then we should call it a draw."

_Another useless tactic to catch me off guard. The booger thinks he can out-maneuver me, but he's heavily mistaken! I mean, seriously?! The drop-the-bomb-cheerfully trick? I think not! _

"Is this some kind of joke?" I demanded. "Because I know for certain that none of the newbies have signed up yet. Therefore, no one has officially won."

"But Rei-chan and Michi-chan both looked happy at practice. So, technically that counts as them wanting to sign up."

"How the heck does that even dignify as-"

"Ah, Ella-chan, you're hurting my wrists."

My hands were gripping something thick as I tried to deny his petty logic on winning a bet. Stupid of me to do I looked down at his hands. He was right. I had a firm hand (technically two) on both of his wrists. What made things worse was that I took a moment to hod onto them. They were slightly larger than my own and just as creamy-skinned as his hands..._Oh, God, I was even describing it...What was wrong with me? _

"Ella-chan?"

"I-I-"

Slapping his hands away I shrilled, "I-It's nothing. I thought I told you not to touch me anymore."

"Sorry," he laughed, "I'll try not to."

"Well...good..And..."

"What is it?" he asked curiously.

"I will not accept a draw."

"Aww, then how do we determine the winner?"

"Hell if I knew...how about waiting for one of them to actually sign up?"

"Oh! I got an idea!"

_No, of course you do. Just when I told you the actual solution..._

"How about we settle it with a challenge?" he offered.

"A challenge?...Really?"

"Yeah! We can run to the cafeteria and see who gets the special Iwatobi bread first!"

_The sweet bread? Does he really wanna gamble with me on this one? _

"Okay..." I said, feeling up to something easy. "So,...tomorrow?"

"Uh-huh! What do you say?"

_What do I say? I'd say-_

"You better prepare to lose at lunch tomorrow!"

He chuckled.

"I'll see you tomorrow then, Ella-chan!"

Hazuki happily waved to me as he ran back to the rest of the group still together in the opposite direction. I smirked to myself thinking about how I could beat the imp at his own game. The best way to get to the cafe was running through the courtyard and around a few shortcuts, although he probably already knew about them.

By the time I made it to the twins' school gates I gave myself a headache trying to decide which quick route I could take to get to the cafeteria. The dweebs had to shout my name in order for me to snap out of my funk.

"C'mon," I said, feeling peckish, "let's go home. Mum's making supper tonight."

"Sis, you're acting weird," Daniel pointed out as he walked beside me on my left, Tachi on my right.

"That's 'cuz I'm tired. Both of you take my hands so that I know you won't yank my skirt like the other day. And don't lick your palms like that one time!"

The monkeys mischievously grinned to each other.

"We won't do it this time," answered Tachi as he took my hand. No wet palm.

"Yeah, we promise." Daniel grabbed my other, only holding onto a few fingers as he peeked over at his twin. "Tachi, did you wanna show her 'that'?"

"Show me what?" I groaned with little tolerance left to be pranked by the idiots.

"We drew something for you in class today."

_Like I'm gonna believe that they made me an innocent drawing like good little kids._

"Here." Tachi pulled out a white piece of paper from his bag, holding it up to me.

I reluctantly snatched it from him expecting to see a crude drawing of me as a cloud of fart or as a monkey flinging poo. Surprisingly it was none of those. The title was scrawled in crayon as "Big Sis" and a roundish stick figure with a yellow ponytail and brown circles for eyes. Two smaller ones with the same black half-circles for hair stood next to my picture, one with a D above his had and the other a T. For once, I was touched.

"You guys..." I breathed.

"There's more on the back," issued Daniel.

I turned the paper over. There was nothing. Or, at least, not until I moved my thumb and saw two circles along with a-

"Why the bloody hell is there a floppy todger on this paper?"

"Because big sis likes 'em!"

"Get back here you nasty little tossers!"

They ran down the street with their willy picture flapping with the wind in their hands. At the end of the day they were able to get home first, hide the picture, and taunt me at the dinner table with their forks and pieces of tuna on their plates. How they became so skilled as ninjas beat me, but it confirmed that my parents were so beyond daft.

* * *

Having more sleep than the day before I walked to school refreshed after dropping the twits off. Their prank of the day was weak compared to taking off their pants off in public. Saying different terms of the word "penis" at the end of every sentence wasn't as effective since the people in town rarely knew a lick of English. The strangers about the town didn't react to what the two hoped to make another gaffe for me, so I was pretty happy.

In the schoolyard I found Kasumi and Samantha off to the side, chatting as usual. I walked up to them wanting to ask when the next club meeting would be only to hear Samantha say that she wore makeup almost constantly and ask if girls wore it often. Not the typical kind of talk to charge into, but I knew that Kasumi would give her a bunch of jibberish so I invited myself in.

"It's that not a lot of girls here wear makeup at school," I explained.

"Really?" Sam turned to me. "They don't wear it here?"

"I don't think it's against the rules here 'cuz I've worn mascara since day one and still get away with it. But there's also the sort of girl-code that says we don't wear makeup unless there's a guy involved."

"What? Like a crush?"

"Yeah, I guess...but don't take it from me seriously. I'm only in on half the stuff here anyway..."

I followed Sam's eyes to Kasumi. The conversation spun itself in a different way when Sam and I started teasing Kasumi with things like "she would be so cute if she wore lip gloss" and stuff. Kasumi had one of those faces that you could read easily so it made it a lot more fun. As I expected Kasumi's cheeks grew apple-red and she backed away with a shy smile trying to bloom. I dared to mention my lip balm in my bag that I could put on her, but was quickly ignored with our "team manager" shoving his swimsuit codswallop into something polar opposite.

"Please, for-the-love-of-GOD, do-not! talk..." I couldn't stress enough to him.

"But it qualifies as-"

"Sorry, guys, but the bell just rang," Sam chirped.

_Thank God. Time to get out of here_, I thought. I hurried to my locker, threw my outdoor shoes in, stuffed my feet into my other pair, and made a bee line to my class. It took a bit before I sat down in my seat and realized that Samantha lied. Or the bell did ring and three-quarters of the class suddenly grew ill.

_Let it go, it's a good thing that she cut me short. Gou isn't even worth the effort. _I forgot about it during lessons as my motor-mouth of a teacher went on and on about rubbish. I pretended to understand what they were saying as I tried copying examples next to Ryuko. As far as I could tell she was keeping up more with the lesson and not the notes. After the last few test results we got back I'd bet that she already knew the entire curriculum. It sucked to be on the short end of the stick when someone like her could easily flaunt her knowledge. But thankfully she wasn't that kind of person. _Algebra really sucks the big one..._

To hear the lunch bell ring was like music to my ears. My hands were nearly shaking because of the cramps that spiked through the muscles. Ryuko excused herself as I was about to joke about our last class to go somewhere, Chiya and her group eyeing her concernedly. I packed my bag and checked my pockets for my yen. Hazuki skipped giddily in his step as he came closer asking, "So, Ella-chan, you ready to race?"

"I'm ready to settle this once and for all with me as rightful winner."

"Whatever you say. On the count of three."

We walked outside the classroom and stopped in the middle of the hallway.

"Three..."

I curled my hands into fists.

"Two..."

I bent my knees.

"One..."

_No going back..._

"Go!"

Pushing off at full force I ran down the hallway. All those times of having to race to class to make it by the bell had helped me with sprinting. I was as fast as a bullet, give that the floors were slippery when it came to corners. Hazuki had his advantage as he flew past me around the corner. Other students nearby pressed themselves against the walls to keep from being trampled on, some even having balls to shout back at me and the dork to watch where we're going. Any other time I would've rolled my eyes at them and hissed something back, but they were all far behind me as I was neck and neck with Hazuki by the entrance. It was that way, around another corner, down some ways, then a door, and finally a lunch line to cut through. We were gradually surpassing the other until the corner. I had a bit to catch up on, and when he and I were dodging people outside near the doors I was so excited to win that a giggle came out of me. Bunny-zuki looked at me and smiled, thinking that I was enjoying it just for the thrill. Boy, was he wrong.

Inside the cafeteria there weren't a lot of students around. My guess was that they hadn't made it there yet or were still left in my dust so it left a thin veil of people wrapping the food stand. Hazuki chose the same counter I did, eyeing the same basket with the long, sweet breaded-sandwiches on the shelf right below the register.

He quickly reached out to grab it. I outstretched my arm at the same time. Time froze in that instant with our hands closing the distance...then...

"Got it!"

Both of us had the packaged bread in our clutches. I glared at him, wishing for Darth Vader powers so he'd choke on his own spit, but instead he smiled and offered, "Wanna call it a tie?"

"In your dreams!"

"Very well..."

The arse swiped the other one in the basket and gave it to the cashier. She took his yen before I could yank it off the counter, smiling and thanking him for his "patronage". Then she looked to me to buy something with the same grin as Hazuki's.

_No...no...You've got to be kidding me. That can't be it. Wh-Why...? I was supposed to win!_

"Would you like any-?" the lunch lady had the gall the ask. I cut her short when I snatched the closest sandwich I could reach and slapped my pocket change on the counter. I didn't even think to check if it was the right amount...she deserved it anyway...

"Cheer up, Ella-chan. Maybe next time you'll win."

_Maybe next time I'll have your head on a pike..._I snipped at him internally. _Bloody hell...I'll just have to ignore him if I don't want a migraine. _

With him following me inside the room I wanted any kind of excuse to get rid of him. Thankfully Kasumi was my savior standing by the other door. Nearly running towards her I went to see how she was doing. She was more quiet than usual, but I took it as just hunger keeping her from talking. And the awkward atmosphere with Hazuki and I around her. Mostly Hazuki though who had terrible manners, talking with his mouth full while pushing moist bread behind his cheeks like a bloody chipmunk. I told Kasumi, "Yeah, well...you better get in line soon 'cuz pigs like Nagisa-kun are going to take all of the good stuff."

"What'd you say, Ella-chan?" he chipped in.

Ignoring him I waited by the doors for Kasumi to buy something. Hazuki insisted on talking to me even if it were obvious that I gave him the silent treatment. So, in a fit of frustration I cracked. Kasumi had to deal with him and me in a heat of a pathetic argument about something I don't even remember anymore. My headache was bigger by the time we made it to the outdoor locker room entrance.

But I wasn't prepared to see Chiya and the two other girls waiting by the locker rooms. Hazuki was in the middle of asking me what swim style I'd prefer to use when I walked up to them.

"What're you guys doing here?"

"Hey, Takemono!" Chiya greeted. "We noticed that Ryuko went in for something. We were wondering if she could help us with...class..stuff..."

It sounded weird that they were wanting her help when they never made one nice comment about Ryuko, but I took it as a good sign for them to become more civil with each other.

"Does that mean you guys aren't fighting?"

"Yeah, we-we talked it out earlier. We're good friends now."

"Totally," one girl agreed.

"Will you tell her that we're out here waiting? It's kinda important." Chiya smiled, the two others begging on the side.

"Uh...sure. Sure."

"Great!"

Taking lead of my group I set out to find Ryuko for my classmates. It was good to know that they made peace. All those times of snappy remarks and watching Ryuko walk out the door made me compelled to choose between the two sides. Now that they were friends I didn't feel conflicted to be friends with Chiya's group and teammates with Ryuko. Though it certainly did not make my overall mood any better with Hazuki still nearby.

Ryuko was talking to the team captains when I found her. She left on the spot once I told her that the others were waiting for her. Feeling upbeat, I stood among the group for the rest of the period eating lunch and listening to the other chat away. Sadly, it didn't complete the mood when Ryuko was gone. As far as Samantha announced, Ryuko turned in her club application form, so as a new member she should have been there eating with us. With her absent it reminded me that I shouldn't have agreed to the last bet Hazuki put me up to. I could've won...He was lucky that I didn't give him on wop to the face. Even more so at the end of the day.

That scenario went like this: After classes ended and the club wanted to get together for some kind of official meeting I was standing by to wait for Ryuko. She packed her things and took her time putting on her outdoor shoes. Her "uncle" was on school grounds so she had to let him know she'd be a while with us. And then we were casually talking as we took the shortcut to the locker rooms.

I mentioned that she looked a bit dreary. She replied, "Oh, I'm just curious about our last test. I feel as though I hadn't given my best to it."

"You're worried about THAT? It doesn't really matter! That guy has had issues since day one. I know that Bubble Butt had it out for me ever since I came in late the one time."

"Bubble Buh...do you mean our homeroom teacher?"

"Sure, yeah...I never cared to call him by his real name, anyway..."

'_Where's this going?' _Hold on. I'm almost there.

I stopped to ask Ryuko if her "uncle" was really blood related. I mean, c'mon, it was apparent that the guy wasn't any regular person. He wore a pressed suit everyday, for Christ's sake!

Just when I was about to hear the answer my arch nemesis comes leaping out from the door shouting my name.

"Oh my GOD! WHAT?!"

"What're you talkin' to Michi-chan about?"

"I'm asking her something in private."

"Oh, okay! Then let's let her finish! "

"That means you're not a part of it!"

"Aww, but what if it's something good?'

"Then I'll make sure you don't hear about it."

"Aww, c'mon, Ella-chan. I just want to be friendly..."

Then guess what he does...

Okay, I'll say it. He leans over and rubs his forehead on my shoulder. Like we're such good friends. I couldn't keep count of how many times I've had to remind him not to touch me, but it became futile to keep doing so. I gave him a warning that time, only...I used his name without any honorifics. He didn't deserve the respect, but he took it the wrong way, like we **were** on good terms.

"Yeah, but..."

_Ugh! He's not letting up! This is clearly useless! No matter what I do I can't get him to stop. And why's my heart fluttering so much?! _

"Whatever,...baka," I murmured.

I folded my arms and waited for him to get off. When he didn't, Ryuko spoke up, making me remember that she was there. And she watched the entire thing.

"Are you two...perhaps...dating?" she asked nervously.

I told her exactly what I was thinking.

"HELLLLL, no!"

Shoving the idiot on me off I went to hide my face from embarrassment. But apparently the team thought it best to show up and catch what was left of the moment, and Hazuki from falling. Samantha stepped in front of him and Makoto to see Ryuko and I.

"Whoa, what's everybody doing out here"

"I was-Hazuki-but-Ryu-agh!" I fumed. "I give up!"

They eventually caught up to me after I stormed away. More than humiliated by my incredible display of me being tongue-tied I wanted to go home and lock myself in my room for the rest of the century. Samantha talked me down so that I could go with the team to see Ryugazaki at his track meet for whatever bleeding reason. My presence there didn't make him any better at practice pole vaulting. He still sucked the landing and made a spectacle of himself almost as much as I had. The Blonde-Wonder got to gloat about his "charm" that worked on Four-Eyes from joining the team after he approached us, what with his cheerful smiled and dancing around like a madman.

After he made a fool out of me for losing the bet and touching me without cause I was livid. He shouldn't get to have a happy ending to his day when he clearly wasn't innocent. _Why does he get to be the happy one? _I whined to myself, _Why doesn't my embarrassment get some kind of compensation? _

Honestly, I didn't know what kind of emotion was running rampant in me until I was walking home alone in the evening. Everyone had left school, me with Ryuko for a little bit. She had to ride her fancy car home, so I was to keep myself company 'til I made it to the elementary school. Part of me was truly frustrated but more or less at my own self.

_I let myself lose the last bet. That I have to admit. If only I hadn't let my competitive side take over. I could've showed him! I could've! ...I let myself down..._

The train station came into view as I continued down one street. I could faintly hear the sound of two boys having an upbeat chat some ways away, but I didn't care to look at them. I was too depressed to really care about what was nearby. But with that thought came one of them shouting my name with his hand waving in the air. Trying to avoid them I trudged the sidewalk as if I didn't hear them. They called out a bit louder.

"Ella-chan!"

It had to be** that** git.

_What, is he going to shove his victory in my face a second time? _I harped.

My legs disobeyed me when I meant to walk faster. I came to a slow stop as his footsteps clomp on the pavement. Thinking that I might as well put a brave face on, I crossed my arms and turned to him.

"You heading home, Ella-chan?" He stopped right in front of me.

"...Yes. Why?"

_Hold your ground. You don't want him to think that you're a sore loser or anything...You're not. You are definitely not! _

"I can walk you home if you'd like."

_It's a joke. It's a horrible joke._

"No, thank you..."

He took two steps forward before asking, "Are you okay? Do you not feel good?"

_He's putting you down. It's a ploy to make you look weak._

I stomped my foot on the ground and snapped, "Why do you care?"

"B-Because we're teammates...we're friends!"

"That's what you may think...but if you think you can come here and gloat about your 'glorious' day then I'll be happy to leave."

"W-Wait, Ella-chan!"

_Why does my throat feel constricted?...Am I gonna cry?..._

Something cold and wet was burning the corners of my eyes, so I spun around to dab my finger at them. What I found were actual tears about to roll down my cheeks. I couldn't believe that my brave act was shattering into pieces. And right in front of him, too.

"Ella-chan! What's wrong?"

He spun me back to look him in the eye, but I bit my lip in hopes of keeping together my demeanor. The tears wanting to form were falling, cascading off my cheeks like a damn waterfall. I kept my eyes on the sidewalk. _Maybe if I pretend that I stared at the pavement too long then he won't suspect a thing..., right?_

"Ella-chan..."

"Wha-"

Hazuki liked to be hands-on, but I never thought he'd have the balls to do what he did. I blinked once and suddenly I found myself wrapped in his arms. Any sign of tears bursting from me disappeared in that instant.

"Wh-What're you doing?" I demanded, trying to wedge my arms in between our chests so I could push him away. But clearly my body took over from there. I didn't move any more than that. I felt numb with a warm sensation trying to cloud my mind.

"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, Ella-chan," he said close to my ear, making my knees weak to the sound of his voice. "I thought it was just all fun and games. But to me you are my friend."

I kept my mouth shut. Saying something would only be giving into him.

"If it's because of earlier, then I'm sorry. I'll call us even and you don't have to be upset anymore...You can cry on me if you want to."

_Hello! Calling control system from reality! He's clearly calling us weak damsels-in-distress here! Why won't you pick up?!_

My body still wouldn't respond. I felt so comfortable with him holding me that I forgot where I was. Briefly, though. I did have my dignity left after that horrible day.

"Don't think I'll let you get off so easily this time," I warned him with my cheek on his shoulder. "It's just been an off-day for me."

I kept my eyes to the side after separating from him, doing all I could to keep him from seeing my red cheeks.

He smiled and told me, "You okay, now?"

Pouting my lips I huffed, "I've been perfectly fine. But tomorrow you better believe that I'll be in top shape to beat you once and for all!"

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow!" he laughed.

As he left to catch the trolley, I was nearly floating down the lane trying not to think about his arms around me. I kept telling myself that I didn't like him. I mean, of course not! Hazuki just doesn't understand personal space! And I certainly had a weakness to embracing. It's normal to be off-guard when someone suddenly grabs hold of you.

Besides, it could've been the adrenaline from being spooked like that...right?

But, setting that aside, I looked back on the entire day and how it ended. I thought about how I lost to Samantha during swim practice, lost the bet with Hazuki, had that whole blunder of an encounter with the team played out. No one had ever been able to knock me down for the count in all my time at school. The whole saying about "a taste of your own medicine" was almost like slapping me in the face. Competing with others had always been my physical mantra. I never liked to lose, and yet when I faced the reality of it more than once in two days...I wondered how that was going to effect me and my appearance later on.

_And "taste of your own medicine" reminds me of that Mary Poppins song..."Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down...medicine go dooown..."_

_"Just a spoon full of karma helps the depression go down..."_

_Oh, shut it!_


End file.
